When thinking about what to cook for the week's smoke, its just damn near impossible to pass up $1.69/lb brisket. There is only 3 of us in my house with really only 2 of us eating brisket (my wife needs a CAT scan). So when I like to look for packers that are ~10-12 pounders with good, even flats. When one whispers to you at $17.24 you listen. Frankly, I average about 1 brisket a month. I can always get packers for less than $3/lb so why the hell not. I think they grow them on trees around here.

Sorry, I am not trying to rub it in, I am just thankful to be able to get such a great and fun piece of smoking meat for such an economical price. I just posted a lengthy reply about being able to cook briskets often, enabling me to experiment and not be concerned about sacrificing a $200 piece of meat. Well, I think all the experimenting is paying off.

This puppy had a great looking flat. It had some serious scars on it once I took it out of the vac pac. But hey, for $17 it was cheaper than ground meat:

This is after it was injected with Butcher BBQ brisket injection and then rested for 4 hours in the fridge as is recommended for the Butcher BBQ. I pulled it and seasoned it with Oakridge plus some coarse pepper added.

Smoked her on my Traeger with Smokin' Brothers 100% hickory pellets with a few handfuls of 100% Mesquite pellets thrown in. Also, filled the expandable Amaze-n-Tube with the pellets for enhanced smoke.

I smoked at 180* for 4 hours and then kicked it up to 250*. I did this while I slept (I have a Savannah Stoker PID controller to program the different temps automatically) and got up this morning and wrapped in foil. The IT was around 165* and it had a nice bark. After wrapping I took it to 200* and started checking for doneness with the probe test.

At 203* in the thickest part of the flat, the prob went in with little resistance and I pulled it. Opened the foil for 5 minutes to let some steam escape and to wrap in some new foil and to collect, cool and defat the drippings left in the foil. Put the brisket in my ice chest for a rest.

After a couple of hours it was lunch time, or at least close enough. This thing came our really good. The last few I did I didn't quite get the slices of flat to flop over my finger quite enough. This time it was just right.

Awesome looking brisket cook!
I've been getting them for $2.99 at Gordon Food Service, and I can get smaller ones at 8 to 10 lbs there.
That's perfect for me because I can cut off the flat to cure for Pastrami and still have a 5 or 6 lb point to smoke. What's really funny is that's what you pay at the grocery around here for ground beef. Go figure..

Awesome looking brisket cook!
I've been getting them for $2.99 at Gordon Food Service, and I can get smaller ones at 8 to 10 lbs there.
That's perfect for me because I can cut off the flat to cure for Pastrami and still have a 5 or 6 lb point to smoke. What's really funny is that's what you pay at the grocery around here for ground beef. Go figure..

Ha! You can cook a few burgers or smoke a brisket this weekend? Hmmmmm.........lets see.........

Was that "soft" part of the flat near the point? The rest looks perfect. I was judged as having mine over-cooked in a comp by judges but still came in 6th place and 1st in peoples choice. Bottom line is I think most people like brisket cooked just to the pulling point, and so do I..